Bugni sisters, Truscott claim Mid-Pen trophies

Brule bows in No. 1 singles title match

September 26, 2013

ISHPEMING - The big bully who never lost a fight all season did what was expected on Wednesday afternoon.

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Steve Brownlee/Mining Journal PhotoIron Mountain’s Katheryn Brown hits a shot during the No. 3 doubles championship match at the Mid-Peninsula Conference meet held in Ishpeming on Wednesday afternoon. Brown and partner Cayla Carey lost a marathon match to Westwood’s Olivia Derocha and Lacey Pietro, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, as the Mountaineers placed third in the team competition.

But the Negaunee High School girls tennis team, that "bully" on the courts, had a hard-fought battle to defend its Mid-Peninsula Conference meet championship at west-end courts in Marquette County on Wednesday.

Twin sisters Kate and Emily Bugni claimed a title for Iron Mountain at No. 2 doubles, Olivia Truscott won for IM at No. 2 singles.

With the meet hosted by Ishpeming, all the championship matches were held at the Ishpeming Playgrounds as earlier rounds were spread around to Westwood and Negaunee, too.

The Miners haven't lost a dual meet during the past six weeks and are the only school among the five in the conference that will go on to play in Division 1 at next Wednesday's Upper Peninsula Finals in Kingsford.

The other four schools - Westwood, Ishpeming, Gwinn and Iron Mountain - will make up a majority of the field at the Division 2 finals that return to the same Ishpeming and neighboring courts next week. They'll be joined by Munising, West Iron County and Ironwood.

The conference meet was no cakewalk for Negaunee, which was tied with Westwood and trailed IM by four points after the first few championship matches were played, according to Miners coach Kyle Saari.

It was only a flurry of titles down the stretch that gave Negaunee a 38-point total, compared to 30 for runner-up Westwood and 29 for third-place IM. Ishpeming was next with 21 points, while Gwinn had 2.

Miners did no worse than third in every one of the eight flights, including taking half the championships.

Three titles came in singles, led by junior Allison Carlson taking the prestigious No. 1 crown with a 6-1, 6-2 championship match victory over IM's Katie Brule.

"She's a good player," Carlson said of Brule. "She's a tough kind of player for me because she comes up to the net a lot."

Westwood and IM split the remaining four championships, and even though the Patriots actually had one fewer finalist than the Mountaineers, IM took a zero in one flight that proved to be the difference between second and third place.